6 years after uprising, El-Sisi says Egypt ‘on right track’

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said on Wednesday that Egypt was “on the right track” six years after the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
Speaking in a televised address commemorating the revolution, El-Sisi called on young activists who took part in mass protests in 2011 to work for the country’s future.
“An objective assessment of developments in Egypt in recent years makes clear that we are moving on the right track,” El-Sisi said.
Addressing young people who took part in the uprising, El-Sisi said Egypt needed their “efforts” to continue on the “road of reform, construction and development.”
Jan. 25 marks the anniversary of the day in 2011 when protesters began to gather in Cairo’s Tahrir Square demanding an end to longtime president Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
For 18 days hundreds of thousands demonstrated in a makeshift tent camp, denouncing social inequalities, government corruption and police abuse, and calling for democratic reforms.
Under increasing pressure, Mubarak resigned on Feb. 11 and continues to be held at a military hospital on the outskirts of Cairo.
As on previous anniversaries, police were out in Cairo on Wednesday to prevent any gatherings during the national holiday, which before the revolution was the country’s national police day.
Critics have accused El-Sisi of cracking down on freedoms won during the revolt since the former army chief toppled Muhammad Mursi, who was elected as president following the revolution, in 2013.
Years of political turmoil — and an insurgency that has killed hundreds of soldiers and police since Mursi’s overthrow — have taken a toll on Egypt’s economy.
El-Sisi, whose government last year secured a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Wednesday promised further efforts to revive the economy.
“We will continue to reform the economy, build massive development projects throughout Egypt, support small and medium projects, and improve the domestic and foreign investment climate,” El-Sisi said.
Israeli citizens advised to leave
Israel advised its citizens in Egypt’s insurgency-hit Sinai peninsula to leave the region, warning of the threat of an imminent attack.
Israeli holidaymakers are often warned of the risks they face in Sinai, which borders Israel, but the “Level 1” alert issued by the anti-terrorism directorate is its most severe warning. It described the threat as “very high and concrete.”
“The directorate warns of the possibility of attacks against tourist sites in the Sinai area in the immediate term,” a statement said.
An insurgency in the rugged, thinly populated Sinai has gained pace since the military toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s oldest movement, in mid-2013 following mass protests against his rule.
Militants have launched a number of deadly cross-border attacks on Israel in the past few years and have occasionally fired rockets across the border into the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat.
The anti-terrorism directorate said that while there was a “constant high threat” in Sinai, Jan. 25, the anniversary of the 2011 revolution in Egypt, was a day that had witnessed attacks in previous years.
Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1978 and the eastern coast of the peninsula is a popular international tourist destination.

Source: Arab News